Desk-type air circulator



March 1955 R. E. DRAKE DESK-TYPE AIR CIRCULATOR Fild May 31, 1951-:

T; N N P Ek 0 V3 N m A 0 4V EW/ A United States PatentO DESK-TYPE AIR CIRCULATOR Robert E. Drake, Nashville, Tenn. Application May 31, 1951, Serial No. 229,005

4 Claims. 01. 230-117 This invention relates to air circulators of the directional stream type, and more particularly to a highly directional small-volume, air-circulator adapted for use on a desk or table for cooling the head and shoulders of a person seated thereat.

Desk fans have proven unsatisfactory for many reasons: (1) due to centrifugal effects of the blades their air streams expand, thus requiring more power and producing more noise and vibration for a given localized cooling effect, as compared with a highly directional air-circulator; (2) the fanned-out stream annoyingly disturbs papers and light articles lying on the desk or table; and (3) the revolving blades, even with basket-like guards, constitute a serious trauma hazard.

Blower-type circulators of the prior art would also be unsatisfactory as desk-type circulators, because of their cumbersomeness, unattractiveness and generally expensive construction.

My invention overcomes the above-mentioned objections, and provides an air-circulator which is highly efficient as to both power-consumption and directionality of the air-stream, does not disturb papers, etc., lying between it and the user, is quiet in operation, is perfectly safe, is esthetically highly pleasing, and yet is economical to manufacture, repair and maintain.

Objects of the invention It is accordingly an object of this invention to provide a desk-type air-circulator which will project a highly directional air-stream upwardly over a desk or table top onto the head and other exposed upper portions of the body of a person seated thereat, to provide an individually controlled one-person cooler.

It is another object of my invention to produce a desk- ,type air-circulator which is low in noise, vibration and Detailed description In the drawings, which illustrate a preferred embodiment of my invention:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the air circulator.

Fig. 2 is an end elevational view from the air-intake side of the blower (the case being shown in phantom).

Fig. 3 is a side elevational view of the blower and motor (the case being shown in phantom).

Fig. 4 is a plan of the circulator viewed from beneath.

With reference now to the drawings, 2 is a unitary case or housing, preferably molded in one piece from a plastic material, such as cellulose acetate. The case 2 is generally dome-shaped except for the flattened end 2a in which the air-intake opening 3 is formed. The case conforms reasonably closely to the contour of the motor and blower assemblage, as is revealed in Figs. 2 and 3, in fact, being practically of a minimum size, consistent with esthetic shape, for the apparatus housed therein. For

' central area two relatively stiff wires 15, which form the support for.

the walls of the casing diverge slightly downwardly to facilitate its removal from the mold members. A screen 4 of wire mesh or equivalent material is attached to the inner face of flattened wall 2a, as by eyelets 5.

The case 2 has another opening 6 extending from the crest of the casing part-way down its front face to form the air-discharge opening. This opening 6 is preferably covered by a metallic plate 7 attached to the case 2 as by eyelets 8. Plate 7 is provided with a series of parallel slits forming shutter-like strips which are then twisted to form the louvers 9, alined for directing the air-stream forwardly and slightly upwardly, as shown bythe arrows 10 in Fig. 2.

convenience in molding,

The open bottom of the case 2 is substantially, but not .completely, closed by a sheet-metal plate 11, having a The plate 11 has attached to its upper surface two bendable webs 13 which may conveniently be the ends of a metal strap 14 welded to the plate 11. The webs 13 are bent over the'lower horizontally extending ends of the the motor 16 and the squirrel-cage type of centrifugal blower 17 mounted on the motor shaft.

The motor 16 is of the shaded-pole induction type and has sealed-in oil-less bearings. The blower has an open air-intake face and a disk-like rear wall carrying the motor-shaft-embracing hub 19. Part 20 is thestator coil, which is connected through switch 21 to the power-supply leads 22.

The heavy support wires 15 are first bent into U-shape with the lower legs considerably longer than the upper. The legs are then passed through parallel bores 23 in the stator core 24. The ends of the upper legs are bent to prevent movement of the core therealong. The lower legs are bent downwardly and then bent to underlie the motor, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3. Cushioning sleeves 24 of rubber or the like may be interposed between the lowermost sections of supports 15 and their anchoring webs 13 to lessen noise and vibration.

To protect desk surfaces from scratching, to prevent sliding or walking ot' the air circulator, and to still further lessen noise and vibration, the base plate 11 is provided with three or more cushioning feet 25 of rubher or the like. Each foot is held assembled with the plate 11 by an expanded stem 26 which is compressedly squeezed through small holes in the plate 11.

The plate 11 is fastened to the case 2 by a screw 27 passing upwardly into a moldedlug 28 (Fig. 4). A second screw 29 passes through case 2 near its bottom edge and engages an upturned tab 30 on the plate 11. Plate 11 has another similar tab 31 which is clamped between the switch 21 and the inner face of the case. Screws 28, 29 and switch 21 constitute a three-point anchorage for the base plate 11.

A small gap is left between the case 2 and the plate 11 to permit a small amount of motor-cooling air to pass laterally and downwardly over the motor as shown by the arrows 33 in Figs. 2 and 3.

The fan is eccentrically mounted in the casing (as shown in Fig. 2) to make a theoretically more perfect blower of the impeller 17 and the casing 2. Roughly, the distances A, B, C and D (Fig. 2) are A, /2, and 1 inch, respectively, although the values are not too critical. A strap 34 of spring steel or the like is attached to the base plate 11 to further define the blower chamber. It is normally biased to flex outwardly to the broken-line position of Fig. 2 whereby vibration will be minimized.

While a preferred embodiment of the invention has been shown and described in detail, it is to be understood that various changes can be made in arrangement of parts and details of construction without departing from the principles of the invention and the scope of the appended claims.

Having thus described the invention, What I claim as 12 depressed to add rigidity to ,thefplate.

to the general shape of the assembled motor and impeller, said casing -having at least one air-intake opening closely adjacent said impeller and at least one air-discharge opening of such size, shape and tangential location relative to said impeller as to project a directional air-stream laterally and somewhat upwardly from said casing; and a plate-like base member substantially but not completely closing the open bottom of said cupshaped casing to leave openings for the circulation of air therethru to cool said :r'notor, said motor and impeller being mounted on said base member.

.2. A desk-type air-circulator according to claim 1 and additionally comprising a control device for said motor, said plate-like base member being attached to said casing at .at least three points, said base member having an upturned extension at at least one of said ,points, said control device having a stem portion passing thru a hole in said upturned extension and thru a hole in said casing alined therewith; and means co-operating with said stem portion for holding said control device, said base member and said casing together at said point.

3. An air eirculator according to claim 1 and in which said motor is .of the electric type having an externally extending laminated core; and additionally comprising mounting means including at least two metallic rods sinuously passing thru bores traversing said laminated core and having their lower ends bent to lie along said base member, and means including resilient vibrationand sound-damping means for attaching said lower ends of said rods to said base member.

4. A desk-type air-circulator, comprising: a motor; a

centrifugal air-impeller closely adjacent and operatively connected to said motor; an inverted-cup-shaped casing relatively closely surrounding and roughly conforming to the general shape of the assembled motor and impeller, said casing having at least one air-intake opening closely adjacent said impeller and at least one air-discharge opening of such size, shape and tangential location relative to said impeller as to project a directional air-stream laterally and somewhat upwardly from said casing; and at least one cuived ba'file member concentrically disposed about the lower lateral periphery of said impeller to improve the acre-dynamic characteristics of the blower chamber formed by said casing, said casing including a dome-shaped top portion having a substantially semi-circular vertical cross-section parallel to said air-intake opening, and said impeller being mounted on a substantially horizontal axis somewhat eccentrically located relative to the center of said semi-circular crosssection, whereby said casing forms a blower chamber having a shape roughly approximating the involute-shape employed in ideal blower-construction.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,423,190 Clements July 18, 1922 1,725,897 Burgess Aug. 27, 1929 1,860,068 Bassler May 24, 1932 1,889,588 Anderson Nov. 29, 1932 2,251,553 Redmond Aug. 5, 1941 2,373,497 Paiste Apr. 10, 1945 2,420,209 Strom May 6, 1947 

